Do Mangoes Have Manganese?

Did you know that manganese is a metallic chemical element that is an essential trace nutrient? Dietary manganese, commonly referred to as a trace mineral, plays a large role in optimizing our health, and here’s why:

• Our bodies need manganese for healthy bones and normal bone growth. Manganese contributes to bone density, which may help prevent bone fractures and slow the progression of osteoporosis.
• Manganese helps our bodies absorb nutrients, including important vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B1 vitamin E, calcium and magnesium,
• Manganese helps us metabolize fat, cholesterol, amino acids, and carbohydrates.
• Manganese is a component of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD), which neutralizes the toxic effects of free radicals and prevents or minimizes damage to cell membranes, proteins, and DNA throughout our body to slow aging and protect against diseases such as heart disease and cancer.     
• We need manganese for healthy brain and nerve function, and to protect against epileptic seizures. Manganese also improves electrical impulse transmission throughout our body by binding to neurotransmitters, which may speed up our cognitive function.
• Manganese is involved with production and secretion of insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels and has implications for diabetes.
• Manganese helps our liver and thyroid gland function properly.
• Manganese has anti-inflammatory properties that are beneficial to arthritis and especially as a remedy for ankle sprains.
• Manganese helps the body form connective tissue, bones, blood clotting factors, and sex hormones.
• Low levels of manganese can contribute to infertility, bone malformation, weakness, and epileptic seizures.

Getting enough manganese from our diet is not difficult at all, yet it is estimated that over one third of Americans get less than the recommended dietary intake (RDI) of 2.3 milligrams (mg) for men and 1.8 mg for women.

Food is the best source of manganese, especially because too much manganese can be toxic and manganese toxicity, which can occur with supplements, is rare from foods.
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The best plant-based sources of manganese include:

Whole grains. While all whole grains are loaded with manganese, uncooked grains have even more manganese than cooked grains. A cup of dry, uncooked rice bran or wheat germ has a whopping 16.8 and 15.3 mg of manganese respectively. That means that if you sprinkle a couple of tablespoons over your cereal in the morning you will have easily met your day’s need for manganese. And that’s not to mention all the manganese in your presumably whole-grain cereal.

A cup of most cooked whole grains will get you close to or over your daily manganese requirement, including brown rice, quinoa, bulgur, amaranth, and spelt.

Some grains that you might enjoy without cooking include rolled oats, germ, and bran. Try soaking kasha (buckwheat), oats, or millet overnight and enjoy them cold the next morning.

The Standard American Diet tends to be much higher in refined grains than whole grains, and a significant amount of manganese gets removed from refined grains. So be sure to eat whole grains!
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​Nuts. Hazelnuts and pine nuts are at the top of this list: just one ounce gives you well over your daily requirement for manganese with 3.6 and 2.5 mg respectively. And one ounce of macadamia nuts, walnuts, and pecans gives you at least half your daily requirement. Other excellent sources of manganese include almonds, cashews, peanuts, Brazil nuts, pistachios, and coconut meat.

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Seeds. Hemp seeds top this list with 12 mg manganese per cup. Three tablespoons in a smoothie gives you an entire day’s worth of manganese with 2.3 mg. Other excellent sources include pumpkin and squash seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds.
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​Soy. In addition to other healthful benefits, soy is also a great source of manganese. A single cup of roasted soybeans, firm tofu, or tempeh gives you an entire day’s worth of manganese with 3.7, 3.0, and 2.2 mg respectively. Other great sources include edamame, sprouted soybeans, and soymilk.
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​Veggies. Manganese another good reason to eat your veggies. A one-cup serving of green beans and lima beans deliver an entire day’s serving of manganese with 2.2 and 2.1 mg respectively, and one cup of several veggies deliver a quarter or more of your daily manganese needs, including sweet potatoes, yams, potatoes, peas, squash, and beets.
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​Beans and legumes. All beans and legumes are great sources of manganese, and a cup of several beans deliver over half your daily manganese requirement, including chickpeas (1.7 mg), small red beans (1.3 mg), white beans (1.1 mg), and baby lima beans (1.1 mg). Other excellent sources of manganese include lentils, lima beans, navy beans, great northern beans, small white beans, black-eyed peas, yellow beans, split peas, pinto beans, black beans, and kidney beans.
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Fruit. Pineapple, blackberries, and raspberries top out this category with 1.5, 0.9, and 0.8 mg of manganese per cup respectively. Many other fruits such as grapes, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, persimmons, and apples, and including avocados, tomatoes, and peppers, deliver at least 10% of your daily manganese requirement, making them good sources according to FDA guidelines.
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​Greens and cruciferous veggies. Spinach tops this list with 1.7 mg manganese per cup of cooked spinach. Cooked garden cress (0.5 mg), kale (0.5 mg), Swiss chard (0.6 mg), beet greens (0.7 mg), and collards (1.0 mg) weigh in at over a quarter of your daily manganese requirement per cup. Other good sources include cooked and raw turnip greens, Moringa leaves, Brussels sprouts, garden cress, spinach, turnip greens, bok choy, dandelion greens, collards, Moringa leaves, cabbage, and broccoli.
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Chocolate. One ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate or unsweetened cocoa powder gives you half your daily requirement for manganese at 1.2 and 1.1 mg respectively. Now you have another reason to eat chocolate!
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And yes, mangoes do have manganese. In fact, there happens to be 0.1 mg of manganese in a cup of mangoes. 

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Try this for a delicious and satisfying, manganese-rich breakfast: start with about half cup of uncooked rolled oats and add another half cup of unsweetened, whole-grain cereal flakes such as corn flakes. Sprinkle a teaspoon each of chia seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and slivered almonds over the top. Then add a sliced banana and about a quarter cup of mixed berries. Pour vanilla soymilk over the top and enjoy!
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Resources
http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/manganese
https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/minerals/health-benefits-of-manganese.html
https://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/foods-high-in-manganese.php
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